Politics

As Johnson Continues to Resist Calls for Expanded Downtown Curfew, Ban on Teens in Millennium Park Remains

Even as Mayor Brandon Johnson continued Tuesday to resist calls to ban teens from downtown after 8 p.m. following several violent incidents, the prohibition on teens in Millennium and Maggie Daley parks after 6 p.m. on weekends is set to enter its fourth summer.

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward), who has regularly demanded that Johnson ban teens from downtown after 8 p.m. in recent years, renewed those calls after two high-profile shootings in Streeterville, a neighborhood popular with tourists and wealthy Chicagoans, in the past three weeks. The city’s curfew starts at 10 p.m. seven days a week and applies to everyone 17 years old and younger.

But banning teens from downtown after 8 p.m. would only shift the problem to other communities, rather than addressing the root cause of the problem, Johnson said Tuesday at a City Hall news conference.

“Working to relocate or displace the problem is not how we solve the problem,” Johnson said. “Of course, we’re going to continue to make sure that there are accountability mechanisms in place to keep people safe.”

But a year after he told reporters that the ban on unaccompanied minors in Millennium and Maggie Daley parks was “not in line … with my vision for the future of Chicago,” the prohibition remains in place, even as the weather finally begins to warm up. Johnson gave no indication Tuesday of plans to lift the restriction.

“I haven’t really thought much about curfews to be honest with you, but I think I spend more time thinking about how we actually can invest in young people and create more healthy safe spaces for them to be able to, you know, exercise their hearts’ desires and do it in a constructive way,” Johnson said.

A Cook County juvenile court judge ordered on Tuesday that a 15-year-old boy be held in juvenile detention after he was charged in connection with the shooting of a tourist from Connecticut near the AMC River East 21 movie theater on March 9.

In the second shooting, a 15-year-old boy suffered a graze wound to his leg near Water Street and Cityfront Plaza Drive. No one has been charged in connection with that shooting.

Large Gatherings an Annual Issue

Many Chicagoans treat the first warm days after a long, bitter winter as unofficial holidays from work and school, and teens have long flocked downtown to celebrate.

For years, the cycle would repeat — teens and young adults would flock downtown, dozens would be arrested, and city officials and police leaders would vow to crack down.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot imposed the ban on teens in Millennium and Maggie Daley parks after Seandell Holliday, 16, was shot in the chest near the Bean sculpture during a large gathering of teens in May 2022. A 17-year-old boy was charged in connection with his death.

Lightfoot also pushed through an expanded teen curfew, convincing a narrow majority of the City Council that it would put an end to a spate of downtown violence among young Chicagoans.

Between 1992 and 2022, the city’s curfew allowed teens to stay out until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and only covered those 16 and younger. Lightfoot’s changes, which Johnson has not moved to reverse, mean the curfew starts at 10 p.m. seven days a week and applies to everyone 17 years old and younger.

But the new rules were only enforced by police four times between May 17, 2022, and Aug. 18, 2022, according to data obtained by WTTW News.

After that summer, the issue of the city’s teen curfew largely faded from the spotlight — until the next surge of warm weather spurred another spate of “teen trends,” large gatherings organized on social media and popular among teens, that resulted in violence downtown.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

---